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Ousted Leader Of Ivory Coast Flees to Togo

The ousted president of Ivory Coast left the country in a French aircraft today, landed in nearby Togo and may seek asylum in France, the government here said.

Three days of rioting seemed to be coming to an end today as the army established control over the West African country, which until last week was considered one of the most stable, prosperous and democratic on the continent.

Residents of Abidjan, the main city, who were unable to finish their Christmas shopping when looting and car hijackings began on Thursday as soldiers held a protest, were back in stores, guarded by soldiers. There were military checkpoints on the thoroughfares, but buses, the main means of transportation for the city's three million people, began running again at dawn.

Nonetheless, a nightly curfew and patrols by soldiers and police officers empowered to shoot anyone on the street after 6 p.m. will continue for the moment, security officials said. The country is being run by a nine-man junta calling itself the National Public Salvation Committee. The commanders of the police, the marines, the paratroops and armored and infantry units took oaths to it on television on Saturday night.

But the real power seems to be Gen. Robert Guei, 58, a former chief of the armed forces. He said today that he would create a government that would include civilians, but did not say when. On Saturday he invited political parties to discuss a unified government.

France and the United States condemned the overthrow of President Henri Konan Bedie, 65, as did Nigeria and South Africa, the two most powerful countries in sub-Saharan Africa. A panel of foreign ministers from the Economic Community of West African States said it would meet soon to discuss the crisis. Ivory Coast is a member of the group, which has intervened in civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

This is the first coup in Ivory Coast, which is the world's largest producer of cocoa, and which exports palm oil, bananas and other tropical products. The country had a history of stable government. It was ruled by Felix Houphouet-Boigny from independence in 1960 until his death in 1993. Mr. Bedie, of Mr. Houphouet-Boigny's Democratic Party, succeeded him.

General Guei said today that mutineers had overthrown the government because it had been taking political prisoners and showing ethnic intolerance uncharacteristic of Ivorian traditions. But several forces seemed to be at work.

General Guei, a French-trained career officer with a relatively low profile, was himself dismissed as armed forces chief by Mr. Bedie in 1995 after rumors of a coup were circulated. The general has said he was not involved in plotting a coup and was working on his farm when the mutineers asked him to be their spokesman.

The young soldiers who took part along with hooligans in the looting that began on Thursday complained about pay and working conditions.

The government has recently been showing virulent nationalism and a xenophobic attitude toward migrant workers; a third of the 19 million population is from neighboring countries.

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More recently, the governing Democratic Party, dominated by members of Mr. Bedie's Baoule ethnic group, has tried to prevent Alassane Ouattara, an International Monetary Fund official who was Mr. Houphouet-Boigny's prime minister, from becoming a candidate in a presidential election next October. Mr. Bedie contended that Mr. Ouattara was a citizen of Burkina Faso and thus ineligible to run.

The government also jailed leaders of Mr. Ouattara's party, the Rally for the Republicans, who were freed by the mutineers.

The new junta has some apparent links to Mr. Ouattara's party. Gen. Lassana Palenfo, another prominent member of the junta, was once Mr. Ouattara's security minister.

The junta expressed satisfaction with the departure of Mr. Bedie under what the French Foreign Ministry described as ''safe and dignified circumstances.'' Mr. Bedie spent two days hiding inside a French military base near the Abidjan airport under the protection of 550 French marines.

Some cabinet ministers are being held by the junta, which said the detention was for their own protection. At least two appeared on television endorsing the coup, one of them surrounded by soldiers.

Mr. Bedie's wife and children were among the entourage of about 12 people allowed to leave with him. He was greeted at the airport in Lome, Togo's capital, by the Togolese president, Gnassingbe Eyadema.

Asked by Agence France-Presse whether Mr. Bedie could end up in France, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry here replied that she did not know whether he wanted to come, but ''if he wishes to, he has the option of doing so.''

On Saturday, France reinforced its garrison with 40 troops from Gabon and positioned 300 more in Senegal to aid in any possible evacuation of the 20,000 or more French citizens in Ivory Coast.

But General Guei refused permission for any more French troops to enter and guaranteed the safety of French citizens and property. He said an increase in troop strength could lead to a bloodbath, but also seemed to fear that France might try to restore Mr. Bedie to power.